Tatiana's Thanksgiving dress!

Tatiana came to me wanting me to sew her a dress. Not just any dress, a Thanksgiving dress! Afterall, she has never had a "Thanksgiving dress" before. She went to the fabric store with me and picked out her fabric and trimmings. This is the end result. We bought the fabric on Monday night and I finished in Saturday morning, just in time to wear to church the next day! She LOVES it! And it is so pretty on her! The fabric really matches her hair! These pictures just do not do it justice. But you get the idea.

The sash has beautiful fall leaves and acorns on it. The trim around the sleeves is a leather fringe. I know, leather and satin??? That is what I said at first, but it is her dress and I let it be what she wanted. She wanted the leather fringe because it would look a little like a Thanksgiving Indian. And you know what? I think it turned out great!

Fun at Brownies

We had fun with some clay...

Then did our Investiture Ceremony where, after reading their part, each girl poured in an ingredient to make our "Brownie Mix". Yummy! This is Tatiana's 3rd and final year in Brownies!

Preschool Fun!

Andrew is getting so big! He loves to participate with Ben and color at the big table too!

We talked about Thanksgiving this week...like our Indian headdresses?!

Coloring our turkeys. What a cute bunch!

Our Office Open House!

On November 12th, Nathan and I had our office open house. It went very well and we received many compliments about the office. I hope to go take more pictures of the office and post the finished product on here soon. I was so busy and stressed that night that I forgot to go around and take more pictures. But I did get a few of the people.

Mingling in the Waiting Room. Grandma and Grandpa Tolman helped with the children so Nathan and I could focus on the Open House. We really appreciate all their help! They were so awesome this week that I would not have been able to afford them if I had to pay them!

Grandpa and Andrew playing in the Children's Room. Look at that face on Andrew! Too funny!

Snacking on refreshments in the Staff Lounge/Kitchen.

Dr. Tolman, out front with our foreman, and our two loan officers. It would be possible without these three! Thank you for all your hard work!

Nathan in the hallway with the architect and dental supply representative. Two more people that helped make all this possible! There are MANY more, but (like I said) I was not very good at taking pictures this evening. Oh well.

Many people didn't realize that we just started to talk about building back in January. We broke ground in May, and saw our first patients in October! That was fast! And Nathan and I designed most of it. I was able to put my "Interior Design" background to good work, choosing all the colors, laminates, counter tops, cabinetry doors, lighting fixtures, doorknobs, trim, etc, etc, etc. Even picked out the outside colors, rock, roof shingles, and landscape plants with Nathan. It was a very fun job, but it was it a lot of work! It is so fun to see the finished product now and have all that hard work behind us. We are very happy with the end result too!
CONGRATULATIONS TO "TOLMAN DENTISTRY"!!!

Veteran's Day Parade

Nick and his Cub Scout Pack were in the Veteran's Day parade. They had a great time. Nick and one of the other boys had to go early with me and we were there at 9:30AM, not too bad. The rest of the two packs (we combined with another Pack) showed up at 10:30ish and then the parade started at 11:00. We didn't get moving though until almost noon because it such a long parade! But the boys had a great time. It was raining really hard before we left home, then drizzling when we first got there for about an hour, and then during the parade it was sunny, warm and beautiful. Then after the parade, once we were home, it was hailing! Crazy weather! But at least it was nice during our parade!

The theme this year was "Generations of Valor" and we decided to make "Freedom's Family Tree". It turned out very nice and we received 3rd place for the youth float division!

The boys enjoyed their donuts while we were waiting for our turn to go.

And we saw Grandma and Grandpa Tolman with Tatiana, Ben and Andrew watching the parade and waiting for us. The kids had a great time and we are so grateful for Grandma and Grandpa coming for a visit and all their help!

"Happy Veteran's Day!" And THANK YOU to all the men and women who have fought to ensure our freedoms!

My trip to LA!

A couple weeks ago I went to LA where I met up with one of my sisters, Kim. She was in town for business and I met up with her a couple days before her work began there to have some sister fun. This was my first time in LA and I must say, it is a different town. Lots to see and do. But both Kim and I are small town girls at heart.


We did enjoy the "In-n-Out Burger" near LAX. The planes flew in so low, it was a very neat and yummy dining experience!

We drove by the beautiful LA Temple. Didn't have time to go inside though. Maybe someday. We drove by on our way to Beverly Hills. We wanted to see if the Beverly Hills area was all that it was cracked up to be. The verdict? Not really. It was rather disappointing. Although the Sprinkles Cupcake shop was worth it!

After Beverly Hills we headed out to the Santa Monica Pier. This was the most fun and my favorite spot we visited. Kim doesn't have the "adrenaline junkie" gene that my other sister and I have so she wouldn't go on any of the rides with me. Oh well it was still a lot of fun!

Then we went to Mood Fabric for a little shopping and dress designing for Kim. She was like a kid in a candy store! After that we drove through the crazy traffic to the Pirate Dinner Adventure! That was also a favorite of ours. Lots of good entertainment! Music, drama, comedy, action, adventure, acrobatics, and good food!

After our Pirate dinner, where we were all sworn in as pirates...arrrr! We drove up the mountain to see the Hollywood sign up close. It was not lit up, did you know it is only lit up in the movies!? And we were stopped by cops who thought we might be kids who were meeting people for a party up there. I guess it is a hot spot that they patrol pretty heavily. So that was an interesting experience.

Then the next day, on Saturday, we went to Long Beach to tour the Queen Mary. Neither of us watch scary movies but we both decided to take the "Haunted Encounters" tour. It was all about the ghosts and paranormal sitings that have taken place on the haunted Queen Mary. All I can say is there is no way I would voluntarily stay at the hotel on the ship after taking that tour!
No, we did not buy our glasses together. We both came on vacation with our sunglasses. They do not match exactly, but they are pretty darned close. Can you tell we are sisters?!

That is one BIG ship!

After Long Beach we went up to Hollywood to check out the walk of fame and the hand prints. It was a neat experience. A lot of people, some sidewalk performers, artificial snow fell on us as we walked by the theater showing "A Christmas Carol". We didn't go to it, don't plan to, like I said I don't like scary movies. Here I am by Shirley Temple's block!

Here I am with the PT Cruiser we rented. My dream car used to be a purple PT Cruiser. It was fun to drive, but I've lived that dream. Don't know if I want one anymore. My van has a lot more pick-up-and-go then this did. I will say that I handled LA traffic with no problem at all. I was quite proud of myself!

That is all for now. I hope to post a few more pictures once Kim sends me the ones from her camera. We had a blast! Can't wait to do it again. Next time we hope our other two sisters can join us! Then it would truely be the perfect "Sister's weekend"! I wonder where Kim's job will take us next???

Tatiana's Achievement Days

Tatiana has been attending "Achievement Days" at church since she turned 8 years old. She really loves it. Earlier this month I was able to go with and help them on a night when they were sewing! They made scarves and skirts for their dolls or stuffed animals. It was a very fun evening and one of Tatiana's favorite activities so far!

For those readers who are not of our faith, here is a description of the program that I found.
The purpose of the Primary Achievement Days Program, is to involve girls ages 8-11 in interesting experiences that will help them learn to live gospel principles. In a talk given by Sister Michaelene P. Grassli in October 1992, she stated: “Achievement Days give youngsters opportunities to put into practice principles they learn on Sunday. This program gives exposure to many possibilities for developing their talents, doing good in the world and preparing for missionary work, and parenthood. We can help our little girls follow God’s plan when we give them something substantive to hold onto in these preparatory years. Achievement Days can help them see how the gospel relates to real life and give them hope and security. These programs are for eternal purposes. We don’t send these children to Christ, we bring them –one by one- as we faithfully fulfill our responsibilities as parents, leaders, and teachers to nurture, teach and care for them. Our loving, concerned actions not only bless their lives, but ours as well. For as we serve the children, we always find we have come closer to Him ourselves.”

Nick's Webelos Award!

Nick loves Cub Scouting! Nathan and I are very proud to announce that he has earned his Webelos Award! He also earned his Religious Knot, his Compass Point Emblem and his East Compass point. For those of you know know nothing about Cub Scouting, just know that Nick has worked really hard!

And it was my pleasure, as his Cub Master, to present his awards to him at this past Pack Meeting. He is such a good kid!

Then Nick pinned the "Webelos Mother's Pin" on me. A proud moment.

Good job Nick! The only next big award for him to earn is the "Arrow of Light" which is the highest award in Cub Scouting!

Happy Halloween!

All dressed up and ready for Trick-or-treating! The weather was perfect and it was a very fun evening! We had a cute monkey (with stitches), SuperWhy! (A cartoon from PBS kids that Ben loves, "With the power to read, we can save the day!"), and three mad scientist! I only dressed up because we didn't get a picture of me at the school mad scientist party and the kids wanted a picture with me. Nathan didn't dress up, but he did go trick-or-treating with us.

Our annual tradition of a ghouly dinner was altered a little because we spent so much time in urgent care with Andrew. But I still had time to do part of it. We had witches fingers (green beans), dragon meatballs in dragon blood sauce (meatballs in my special red sauce) served over maggots (rice). Yummy! The kids love it and we do Halloween dinner crazy like that every year.

Andrew's stitches!

Our sweet little Andrew, our fourth child is our first and second child to get stitches! The first time was with his stomach surgery at 6 weeks old. This time was an injury. He was sitting on our bed (he can climb on and off himself) and two of his siblings were rough-housing and knocked him off. His teeth went all the way through his lip!!! Nick babysat the kids while Nathan and I drove five minutes up the road to urgent care to have him stitched up. He got two stitches. He was very brave and very strong. Everyone kept commenting on what a good baby he is. But just look at that face....ahhhh....poor baby!

He got a homemade "I'm Sorry" card from one of the rough-housers and Daddy took the stitches out four days later. He will have a scar, but it isn't too bad.

Oh, and this happened on Halloween! Poor kid!

Bob is back!

When we first moved into this house, six years ago, we found a tiny tree frog in the back yard. We quickly adopted "him" as a pet and Nick, then 4 years old and a huge fan of "Bob the Builder" named him "Bob the frog". We kept him for a while, feeding him crickets purchased at the pet store and then after several months we let him go. We told the children he needed to go back to live with his family and he missed them. Every year since in the fall we find another tree frog and of course the kids love to think that is our good ol' Bob coming back for a visit.

Here is our newest Bob I found in the garden and Nathan, Nick and I were harvesting and cleaning it out. Ben and Andrew were particularly excited!

And, yes, that is Tatiana's hair. It was still wildly pink from the school party the day before and she wanted it to be wilder that night for Trick-or-treating so she wasn't washing it yet.

Halloween Festivities!

Nick and Tatiana had a fun Halloween party at school. I should know, I planned it! HaHaHa! Seriously though, they did have a great time and all their classmates are still talking about it. What did we do? Well first of all I have to tell you that we combined Nick and Tatiana's classrooms. It was the teachers' idea and I was happy about it because that meant I didn't have to run back and forth between the classrooms, since we were going to do it in the gym. I didn't have to plan two parties, just one...for 64 kids!

First I did a really cool, kinda spooky, dry ice demonstration. I was dressed up as a mad scientist and I got a lot of oohs and aahhhs. I wish I got a picture of me doing it, or at least my super creepy demo table set up, but oh well.

Then the kids participated in the school-wide serpentine. They snaked in and out of each classroom showing off their costumes. Everyone participates in this. It is a lot of fun for everyone. Here is Nick as a green-haired, half dead, mad scientist. He came up with it on his own, it was pretty cool. His little friend (isn't she cute?) decided to be a mad scientist too when she found out we were doing a "Mad Scientist" themed Halloween party.

After the serpentine, everyone met back into the gym where I had six stations set up. There were two parent volunteers at each station and lots more walking around taking pictures and helping where needed. We did fun experiments and got oohs and aaahs and even one that made the kids jump! So fun!

Here is our cool, pink-haired mid scientist, Tatiana doing some experiments. She is testing to see which candies are acidic.


We had a Halloween party at the church as well. Here is "Super Why" Ben playing a game. There are stickers on the bottom of the little pumpkins and he has to find a match to win a prize.

Here is our Monkey Andrew playing the beanbag toss. He loved this! He loves balls and throwing so he spent a lot of time at this station!

This in That in October...

The kids made "box houses" and have been having a lot of fun with them. They are so creative!


Fun in the tunnels! Andrew is such a ham!

I went along with Nick and his class to the Eugene Symphony Orchestra. It was a great experience for everyone and Nick even chose to sit by me on the bus! Those are two of his buddies sitting across from us.

Nick made this LEGO clock! It doesn't have a mechanism in it yet, but how cool is that?!?! He first designed it out on graph paper and then built it. No, he did not have a pattern, this is all "Nick-genius" powered.

A family of readers...

We did have a Brownie meeting at our house this month because we were baking! Can't bake in a school library...

More kitchen fun! We made gourmet caramel apples! Dipped in caramel, rolled in crushed butterfingers and drizzled with white chocolate! Yummy!

Tae Kwon Do

Nick and Tatiana both competed in their third Tae Kwon Do tournament. They both did GREAT! Both of them walked away with two trophies! WAY TO GO!!!

Pumpkin Fun!

We harvested many pumpkins from our garden this year! The kids had fun picking theirs out.

Uh! This is heeeeavy!


Load them into the wheel burrow and take them to the front yard.

Andrew liked the gourds.

The decorated some of them using the plastic face pieces and we carves a couple others. They all did a great job! We had a very festive front door this year!